MX

[ron chappel]

It's been awhile since i've done any motorsport photography but today i happened to visit some friends when they were playing on their ramp jumps.
I took a bunch of shots with a VERY cheap telezoom which was the only lens i had with me.Most were out of focus of course but the odd shot turned out:)
D*mn i have to work on my timing:rolleyes: :rolleyes: .Most shots could have been better
simply by shooting half a second earlier.....

The best shot but not the most interesting-

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4742/img7404web2wf0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Took awhile to get even the basics right! LOL
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1218/img7400webdg7.jpg

Kept missing his head touching the seat -:(
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8448/img7410webzt2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[YFZ_52]

I like the second one because its looking underneath him. Its a different style shot then the usual that you see. Freestyle motocross is hard to get the perfect timing because each guy does a trick at different times in the air. everyone has their own style. These shots look great though. Keep up the FMX shooting.

Josh

[Mattyj]

Great captures!

[HrcRacing]

Looks like you had some pretty harsh light, especially on the second one. Being an older MX'er, I like the first one. Has a classic style to it.
I'm a bit puzzled as to why you "Kept missing his head touching the seat" on the third one. Couldn't you just shoot a burst of shots?
Regardless, other than the highlights on the second, they're a great series of shots.

[ron chappel]

Yes a series of shots would be ideal ,but the 300D just isn't quite quick enough to get more than one usefull image per jump :(. At 3 frames per sec it should be in theory - maybe the slow focussing lens made it worse (a sigma 70-300 DL macro -non APO)

The harsh light in the second shot is mostly wrongly done post proccessing.It's good to have others critique like this -the mistakes i'd take ages to spot are easily noticable to others ;)

How long since you've raced HRC?
I was most serious in the mid eighties myself.

[HrcRacing]

As far as the slow focussing goes, when we used to have a motocross national fairly nearby, I used to pre-focus manually. I pretty much leave the MX photography up to Racer-X now ;), but read somewhere that photographers are still doing this to avoid those kind of problems.
Even with landscapes, I focus on, for example, a foreground interest, then switch to MF. Works great.
Ah, let's see, my last race must have been in 2003. I started racing in 1982 and raced pretty steady until 1997. I still have a bike ('03 CRF450R) but, now a days, it's just riding for fun.

What do you know about dual-sport rides in Australia Ron? A buddy of mine's dream is to spend a couple of weeks over there, one of them on a bike.

[barP]

cool stuff, man. i feel your pain with the sigma 70-300. i have the newer one, but as i told some moto buddies, it's slower than a '93 kx125 with a rag in the airbox!

wp.

[SeanH]

cool stuff, man. i feel your pain with the sigma 70-300. i have the newer one, but as i told some moto buddies, it's slower than a '93 kx125 with a rag in the airbox!

wp.

Now that's slow......LOL

I shoot this stuff pretty regular and I have pretty good luck with actually tracking the bike in servo, and normally use partial or center weighted metering.

Oh and speaking of riding / racing.......here's the old man (me).......yesturday......shot by a buddy of mine.
http://i.pbase.com/g3/49/377449/2/66584950.qMfeVnUs.jpg